Tide turns for hideaways

Holiday home prices may have crashed but at least this has brought cash buyers into the market

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t the height of the property boom, mobile homes with ocean views in the sunny southeast changed hands for €250,000. Now for that much money you can buy a nice castle and have some change.

In the recent Allsop Space auction, the 15th-century White’s Castle in Athy, Co Kildare, which cost its previous owner €1.7m seven years ago, was sold for just €195,000 to a US-based Irish family.

For just over half that figure, buyers could pick up a beachfront, three-bedroom home next to a golf course. For as little as €60,000 they could get a nice little rural cottage, albeit in need of renovation, but on its own tidy plot of land.

Nobody likes selling into a depressed market but for those who need to offload a holiday property, at least there is consolation that prices are now at levels where deals can be done. An increasing number of